Migrants desperate to reach UK say they just want to keep their families safe
– one of the many measures taken to provide a sense of dignity.
Volunteers have marked out wickets and provided a bat for cricket games, and we saw groups playing with a football in between queuing for food.
The charity visits this camp twice a week, offering moments of hope in an otherwise miserable existence.
Medical care is also provided and water is available in tanks.
But the goal for all is clear – to get to England and build a new life.
Hessan, a 28-year-old from Iran who has around 100 family members living in London, has already paid £3,000 to a smuggler and expects to risk his life on a dinghy in the next two weeks.
He is happy to pay the money, and says those under 12-years-old often get half price passages.
Asked if he is scared about the impending journey, he said calmly: “Of course I am scared but I have no other option. I cannot go back to Iran.”
Ali Hussain, 33, from Baghdad in Iraq, was stunned to hear Mr Johnson’s response to migrant crossings.
“Boris Johnson doesn’t understand our lives – he couldn’t,” said Ali. “Has that man ever struggled in his life?”
Ali left war-torn Iraq seven years ago and made a failed bid for asylum in Germany before heading to Calais.
“This is my life,” he said, looking around the place he has called home for eight months.
“Where do we go? My dream is to come to England.
“I have tried many times to come on a lorry but have never been successful.
“Last week a woman in Iraq, working for a humanitarian organisation, was raped. Do you think I should go back? Does that sound safe? There is no life in Iraq.
“I would say to Boris Johnson that we deserve a life as well. I would say to all British people – please, just give us a chance. We human as well.”
Haille, a 34-year-old from Ethiopia, speaks five languages and was a teacher in his country.
He was tortured for speaking out against the government, before being expelled, he said.
Last month Haille was stabbed in a row with a fellow refugee.
Yet after three years in Calais he says the squalor feels “almost normal”.
“But this is not normal”, he said. “We’re talking about human beings. I are
CATCH OF THE DAY Playing cricket to pass the time was tortured and imprisoned in my own country, that’s why I’m here.
“I was lucky. I lost many friends. They did not survive the torture.”
Reflecting on Mr Johnson’s comments, he said: “How do you define criminality?
“When governments become involved in wars on foreign soil, we know the after-effects and displacement can last for many years.
“The number of refugees in England is far less than in France and other
REFUGEE ALI ON THE PM’S COMMENTS ON CROSSINGS
DESPERATE Camp residents fill containers with water
European countries. I want to start a new life in England. We’re human beings – we deserve a life too.
“You cannot judge a person until you know their history.”
Every two days a police presence forces the refugees out of the camp.
If tents are left in the woodland, officers take them and arrest the people they belong to, Haille said.
Police would not let the Mirror access the camp yesterday, “while the operation was ongoing” and tried to stop our photographer taking pictures.
“It’s psychological torture,” Haille said. “Every two days, 8.30-10.30am.
“They want to dehumanise us and force us to move on elsewhere. But where are we going to go? There will be a full, forced eviction soon.”
Rorry Biggs, from the Human Rights Observers group, which documents the operations, said: “Police doing this is a breach of Article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights – the right to a family and private life.
“It is a psychological game.”
Boris Johnson doesn’t understand. Has he ever struggled?
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